Photos courtesy of Elizabeth Browne.
Emily Maish receives a prosthetic device from Nipun Mittal and Eisuke Adachi.
The assignment wasn’t in a textbook. The test wasn’t traditional, completed on paper and with a pencil. And the person waiting for the finished project wasn’t the teacher standing at the front of the classroom.
She was a member of the community — a local woman named Emily who needed a lightweight prosthetic hand.
Senior students in the Spain Park Engineering Academy had designed and 3D-printed the device, and then had the opportunity to meet the person who would use it.
For Elizabeth Browne, an engineering teacher and the academy’s director, that connection is exactly what engineering education should be about.
“What could be more caring than engineering?” Browne said.
Browne came to education by an unconventional route. An engineer by training, she spent years working as a consultant for small and midsize manufacturers, helping companies manage environmental and safety programs.
After getting remarried and becoming a mother and stepmother to five children, Browne decided to take a break from her engineering career. It wasn’t long before she began looking for something new.
She found her way to Spain Park High School, where she was hired as an engineering teacher just days before the start of the school year.
She had engineering experience. She had experience teaching and training adults. But she had never been a traditional classroom teacher.
“I didn’t even know what PowerSchool was,” Browne said. “I thought they would just give me the textbooks, and I’d be on my way.”
Instead, she found herself building a program — and eventually an approach to teaching — around a simple idea: If students can use what they learn to solve a real problem for a real person, the lesson becomes much more meaningful.
Browne said she wants students to have the kind of hands-on experiences she wishes she had been exposed to when she was in high school.
“I want to be the teacher I feel like I needed when I was in high school,” she said.
That philosophy has shaped the Engineering Academy’s capstone projects, which allow seniors to pursue projects that interest them while applying the skills they have learned.
Eisuke Adachi, left, and Nipun Mittal completed a prosthetic hand for Emily Maish.
The prosthetics project began when one of Browne’s students, Fiona Selle, told her about E-Nable, a nonprofit organization that connects volunteers with people who need prosthetic devices.
Browne had inherited 3D printers and other technology when she began teaching and was looking for meaningful ways for students to use them.
The process of becoming an approved E-Nable club was extensive. Students had to demonstrate that they could produce and assemble the prosthetic devices properly, including submitting detailed photographs and videos demonstrating the function and quality of their work.
Spain Park became the first approved E-Nable club in Alabama and one of the only high school clubs in America.
The students then learned that engineering a prosthetic device isn’t simply a matter of printing a piece of plastic. The design depends on the type and amount of limb a person has and what the device needs to accomplish.
For Emily, the need was especially practical.
She and her mother, who is dependent upon a wheelchair, were preparing for a trip to Europe. Emily had a prosthetic arm provided through insurance, but it was expensive, heavy and cumbersome to travel with.
The lighter device created by the Spain Park students gave her another option.
The students were able to meet with Emily and hear firsthand how the device could affect her trip.
“That really took it to another level,” Browne said.
The project also changed the way the students approached their work.
Eisuke Adachi, left, and Nipun Mittal completed a prosthetic hand for Emily Maish.
The two seniors began coming into Browne’s classroom during lunch and study periods to work on the project. One student even took the project home over spring break so they could continue working and make sure Emily received the device in time for her trip.
Browne said that kind of commitment is one of the most rewarding parts of teaching.
“I think it’s really cool to see at the end of their senior year being passionate about something when they normally have senioritis,” she said.
The prosthetics project is just one example of Browne’s approach to engineering education.
Her students have built adaptive cars through the Go Baby Go program and delivered them to children through United Ability. Other students have pursued projects ranging from robotics to biomedical engineering.
One student created a robotic dog designed to help people with diabetes monitor their blood sugar. The student developed a website and app to control the dog and created an algorithm designed to predict blood sugar levels over 30 minutes. The dog also included a compartment for carrying snacks or juice.
Another student became fascinated with aviation after designing a wearable aircraft. Browne encouraged the idea as far as she safely could before drawing a line when the student’s plan involved launching the device from the back of a moving truck.
“I really try to say yes,” Browne laughed, “but safety has to be considered as well.”
That willingness to let students explore their ideas is central to the academy.
Browne wants students to understand that engineering is not simply about math and machines. It can be creative. It can be useful. And it can be deeply connected to other people.
She also hopes those experiences will help broaden the students who see themselves as engineers.
“I am a huge advocate for diversity in the field of engineering,” Browne said.
She is particularly interested in encouraging more girls to consider engineering as a career path, noting that many students still associate careers for women with teaching, nursing and other traditional helping professions.
Browne believes engineering belongs in that conversation, too.
“I’m really trying to overcome this idea that the career of engineering isn’t one that’s creative,” she said. “And it isn’t one that’s caring.”
For Browne, those ideas are not theoretical. They are playing out in her classroom.
Students aren’t simply completing an assignment and receiving a grade. They are designing, testing, revising, communicating with community partners and, in some cases, meeting the people who will ultimately benefit from their work.
The result is an Engineering Academy where the projects don’t necessarily end when the school bell rings — and where the most important measure of success may be what happens after the project leaves the classroom.
Browne’s students are learning to look at a problem, ask questions and figure out what they can build to help.
And sometimes, they get to hand the finished product directly to the person who needed it.
